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TowerBrook Capital Partners, L.P. is an investment management firm headquartered in London and New York City. TowerBrook spun out of
Soros Fund Management Soros Fund Management, LLC is a private American investment management firm. It is currently structured as a family office, but formerly as a hedge fund. The firm was founded in 1970 by George Soros and, in 2010, was reported to be one of the mo ...
in 2005 and became known for acquiring majority stakes in companies such as
Jimmy Choo Datuk Jimmy Choo Back from ...
. Managing $13.7 billion in a number of private equity funds and structured opportunities funds, TowerBrook listed 30 active investments on its website as of 2020.


History


2005 and prior

TowerBrook Capital Partners was formed as a
spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gove ...
of George Soros' equity management firm, by Jennifer Ternoey. TowerBrook's co-founders, Neal Moszkowski and Ramez Sousou, had previously served as co-heads of Soros Fund Management's private equity arm, Soros Private Equity (SPEP); SPEP launched its first fund around 2000. SPEP was also an early investor in companies such as
Eircom Eircom Limited, trading as Eir ( ; stylised eir), is a large fixed, mobile and broadband telecommunications company in Ireland. The now privatised company, which is currently incorporated in Jersey, traces its origins to the Ireland's former ...
,
CSTV CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known ...
Networks, and
Cablecom UPC was the largest cable operator in Switzerland with around 1.1 million residential and business customers and was formed in 1994 through the merger of several cable operators. UPC has been a subsidiary of Liberty Global since 2005. On 27 Fe ...
, which it sold to
Liberty Global Liberty Global plc is a British-Dutch-American multinational telecommunications company with headquarters in London, Amsterdam and Denver. Its respective legal names are Liberty Global Plc, Liberty Global B.V. and Liberty Global, Inc., with t ...
in 2005. In April 2005, Moszkowski and Sousou spun out SPEP from
Soros Fund Management Soros Fund Management, LLC is a private American investment management firm. It is currently structured as a family office, but formerly as a hedge fund. The firm was founded in 1970 by George Soros and, in 2010, was reported to be one of the mo ...
to establish TowerBrook Capital Partners in New York and London.


2006–2013

TowerBrook closed its TowerBrook Investors II LP fund at $1.3 billion in March 2006, with
George Soros George Soros ( name written in eastern order), (born György Schwartz, August 12, 1930) is a Hungarian-American businessman and philanthropist. , he had a net worth of US$8.6 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated m ...
contributing a significant amount. Later that month, the fund purchased 67% of French engineering company GSE, which had an estimated value of €230 million. In 2006, TowerBrook purchased 75% of the
St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...
National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...
team for $150 million, also then purchasing the lease of the
Scottrade Center The Enterprise Center is an 18,096-seat arena located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Its primary tenant is the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League, but it is also used for other functions, such as NCAA basketball, ...
in St. Louis, Missouri. The purchase made TowerBrook "the only private equity firm to own a share in a professional sports team," according to ''Sports Business Daily''. Also in 2006, TowerBrook raised $850 million from the sale of
WellCare Health Plans WellCare Health Plans, Inc. is an American health insurance company that provides managed care services primarily through Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug plans for members across the United States. WellCare began o ...
, and a further $160 million from the disposal of Tradedoubler. After acquisition of clothing company Odlo in 2006, in 2007 TowerBrook purchased the designer shoe company
Jimmy Choo Datuk Jimmy Choo Back from ...
for £180 million. In 2007, it invested in U.S. company Sound Inpatient Physicians. In 2008, TowerBrook raised $2.8 billion from investors for its third fund. According to ''Financial Times'', the successful fundraising during a difficult economic period was noted as reflecting TowerBrook's sharp decline in its investing pace during a credit boom, while keeping debt for new investments "below the market average." The fund's first deal was in 2009, when TowerBrook acquired 60% of Autodistribution Group for $139 million, selling the stake six years later to
Bain Capital Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry sec ...
. In 2009, TowerBrook founded Haymarket Financial, or HayFin, initially as a corporate lender for small and medium businesses. Investors, including
Sunseeker Sunseeker International is a Chinese owned British luxury performance motor yacht brand. Originally named Poole Power Boats, the company was founded by brothers Robert and John Braithwaite in 1969. The company changed its name to Sunseeker In ...
, Ronald Mourad Cohen, Lord Rothschild, and
Future Fund The Future Fund is an independently managed sovereign wealth fund established in 2006 to strengthen the Australian Government's long-term financial position by making provision for unfunded superannuation liabilities for politicians and other p ...
, invested a total of $580 million in HayFin in September 2010, raising the lender's equity to about €1 billion. TowerBrook sold its stake in HayFin in 2017. In 2010, Towerbrook acquired the building company Monier and sold Broadlane Group for $850 million. TowerBrook purchased the fashion retailer Phase Eight for £80 million in February 2011. Three months later, TowerBrook sold Jimmy Choo, for a reported £500 million. In 2012, TowerBrook sold part of its stake in the St. Louis Blues to a consortium of investors, retaining a stake of around 50%. Also in 2012, TowerBrook acquired a majority interest in the professional coaching business Vistage International. In 2013, Towerbrook acquired scrap refiner Metallum for £295 million and True Religion Apparel for $835 million. That year, the company also sold Rave Cinemas to
Cinemark Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (stylized as CineMark from 1998 to 2022 and CINEMARK since 2022) is an American movie theater chain that started operations in 1984 and since then it has operated theaters with hundreds of locations throughout the America ...
. In early 2013, ''
The Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...
'' wrote that TowerBrook was "defying a depressed fundraising market" by raising $3.5 billion for its new fund, TowerBrook Investors IV. Originally targeted at $3 billion, Fund IV became "considerably oversubscribed", receiving subscriptions of over $5 billion.


2014–2020

In 2014, TowerBrook acquired Independent Clinical Services from
The Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate ...
for $408 million. In June of that year, TowerBrook portfolio company
Volution Group Volution Group plc is a manufacturer of ventilation equipment for commercial and residential customers. Based in Crawley, West Sussex, the company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History The com ...
completed an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange, diluting TowerBrook’s stake from 85% to 61%. In 2015, TowerBrook sold Phase Eight, then valued at £300 million, to the Foschini Group of South Africa, and sold a 10% stake in itself to Wafra Investment Advisory Group "to free up capital to spend on the business." In November 2015 TowerBrook secured over $800 million for its new TowerBrook Structured Opportunities Fund, exceeding its initial target of $600 million. Also in 2015, Towerbrook purchased American Apparel business J.Jill for around $400 million, and acquired a stake in U.S.-based Accretive Health for $200 million. In March 2016, TowerBrook sold the majority of Van Geloven, a Dutch snack maker it had acquired the previous year, to McCain Foods. In April 2016, TowerBrook announced it was partnering with U.S.-based health system Ascension Health Alliance to develop Ascension's healthcare technology business TRIMEDX. By that summer, the firm had raised a total of $9.4 billion from investors in four private equity funds and one structured opportunities fund, designed to allow the firm to make minority investments. The firm completed eight investments in 2017, including purchasing 47% of the aerospace company Aernova and acquisition of loyalty services business Rewards Network. TowerBrook retained 50% of J.Jill stock when taking it public on the
New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...
in March 2017. Several months later, True Religion filed for bankruptcy protection, stating that TowerBrook would "swap debt into equity, handing them majority control." The bankruptcy plan was approved by the courts in October 2017, with True Religion's debt cut by $354 million. In June 2018, $4.25 billion was raised for a new Towerbrook buyout fund, Towerbrook Investors V. $1.05 billion was also raised for a Structured Opportunities Fund. In 2018 and 2019, TowerBrook made significant investments in Validity Finance, GBA Group, Orchid Underwriters and Studio Movie Grill. TowerBrook listed 30 active investments on its website in 2020, among them KeHe Distributors, BevMo!, and OVH. In 2019, Towerbrook became the first "mainstream private-equity shop" to be certified as a B corporation. In October 2019 it was reported that TowerBrook and Ascension Health were co-investing in the hospice company Compassus through Ascension TowerBrook Healthcare Opportunities (ATHO), a new joint venture. In February 2020, the company was researching a sale of Independent Clinical Services.


Business model

TowerBrook operates two fund types, private equity and structured opportunities. TowerBrook's website states that its private equity strategy is "based on the focused, proprietary sourcing of selected, control-oriented" investments in large and midsize companies, where the firm has “identified scope for significant further improvement and value creation." The firm's Structured Opportunities Funds make minority investments in a range of businesses, "principally via structured asset and structured equity investments." The firm publishes an annual "Responsible Ownership Report", and is a signatory to the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...
Principles for Responsible Investment Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI or PRI) is a United Nations-supported international network of financial institutions working together to implement its six aspirational principles, often referenced as "the Principles". Its goal is to u ...
Initiative (PRI). Towerbrook is a certified B Corporation.


Locations

TowerBrook is co-headquartered in London, England and New York City. The firm also has offices in
Madrid, Spain Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
and
Frankfurt, Germany Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...
, and a representative office in Amsterdam. It previously had an office in San Francisco, California and also in Munich.


Key People

The firm is led by its founders, Jennifer Ternoey, Neal Moszkowski, and Ramez Sousou, who are its co-chairs and co-CEOs, and are based in New York and London, respectively. TowerBrook's 23-member senior advisory board includes David J. Barger, Daniel Bernard,
Anne Bouverot Anne Bouverot (born 21 March 1966) is a French business executive, engineer, AI researcher, and a philanthropist. Education Anne Bouverot attended the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris where she studied computer science leading to an M.S. (19 ...
, Dave Checketts, Andrew Feldman,
Trevor Fetter Trevor Fetter is an American businessman, the lead independent director of The Hartford Financial Services Group, and the former president, CEO, and chairman of Tenet Healthcare. He is a senior lecturer in the General Management unit of Harvard B ...
,
Alan Fishman Alan H. Fishman (born 16 March 1946) is an American businessman. He was notably the last CEO of Washington Mutual (WaMu) prior to its assets being seized by federal regulators on September 25, 2008. Education and Career Fishman holds a bach ...
,
Reuben Jeffery III Reuben Jeffery III (born August 21, 1953) is the former United States Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs, having been appointed to that position by United States President George W. Bush in June 2007. Presen ...
, Marwan Lahoud and Gareth Penny.


Philanthropy

The TowerBrook Foundation is a charitable organization established by the partners of the firm in 2006. It has donated to nonprofits such as
City Year City Year is an American education nonprofit organization founded in 1988. The organization partners with public schools in 29 high-need communities across the US and through international affiliates in the UK and Johannesburg, South Africa. Ci ...
and
Habitat for Humanity Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a C ...
.


See also

* List of private equity firms * List of companies based in London * List of companies based in New York City


References


External links


TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P.
{{private equity firms Private equity firms of the United States Financial services companies established in 2001 Companies based in New York City Companies based in London